Meatless continues and hasn't disappointed me yet.

As with trying anything new, some things work and others don't.  And I of course tweak the recipes to my liking.

I try not to get bored with anything.  I have realized I have some things I want to make, I just have a vegetarian twist to them.  I have found Mexican and Asian seam to be the easiest to find a vegetarian option.  Here I have 5 recipes and 3 meat substitutes

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One of my favorite recipes so far, Vegetarian Quinoa Chili.  It was so good and great for left overs. It's from a fun blog with some great sounding recipes.  Two Peas in a Pod.  There is a Greek Tortellini Salad that sounds like a great spring/summer recipe.

On to the Chili...

I cooked up the quinoa the day before and chopped all the veggies.  I followed the recipe pretty much.  I just added some cayenne pepper and some hot sauce.  I used green onions, avocado and some cheese for toppings.

It isn't that many ingredients really.  It's pretty simple

   

 There is a lot of chopping, but with a big cutting board, it's a breeze.

 For toppings, I chopped up avocado and green onions.  I just did the avocado before serving to prevent it browning.  And the quinoa I cooked up the day before

 I took a tip from Rachel Ray and used a garbage bowl.  Since I as not feeling like going back and forth to the garbage can.

 I also opened the cans of tomatoes and drained the beans.  I also got my spices ready to just drop in.

 After cooking the veggies just a bit, added the beans, tomatoes and spices.  That is when the smell started to really get me going.

It is a very feeling chili.  One of my favorites, if not they favorite.

I will be making this again!

Another blog I found is Food Doodles.  I came across a recipe for Pizza Quinoa Casserole.  I had to try it.  It not only looked simple, but promising.

 Pretty easy ingredients.  This is my first time using nutritional yeast.  I don't recommend smelling it.  It doesn't smell bad, but it doesn't smell anything like Parmesan cheese.

 Quinoa really doesn't take too long to cook, but I can see me making up a few batches ahead of time.

After mixing it up, just spread into a 9x9 pan.  The recipe called for ramekins, but I don't have them.

 I almost forgot to take a photo of it after adding the cheese.

Next time, I'm adding some onions and bell peppers.  And of course, more garlic.

It's a keeper.  It was good and with some added veggies, I think even better.  Might even make a good eggplant parmigiana casserole.

 It also was a good recipe, but I plan on changing some things for next time.
Quinoa Fajita Burritos.  This blog also has some others for me to try, The Garden Grazer.

 This was a good recipe for taco seasoning and I plan on using it as a starter.

I plan on increasing the cayenne pepper to 1/2 tsp, upping the Chili Powder to 1 1/2 tbs and using a spicy one also.

 Slicing the peppers and onions was done a head of time.

 Just after adding the spices to the warm quinoa, I got hit with a great smell.

 A little bean/qunioa mix, some peppers and some salsa.  I used the Sweet Chipolte Salas I had made.  It was perfect!

I believe folding burriots is an art.  An art that I don't have.
It made 8 burritos and I put them on a lightly greased pan and baked at 350 until they began to get a little brown. and crisp.

Next time, more salsa.

Tofu Teriyaki...This was a FAIL.  I didn't care for it at all.  I'm not big on mushrooms. I don't mind them diced, as long as they are the baby portabella ones. I used only 3 cups and increased the zucchini and summer squash adding an extra combined cup. And I can't where I got the recipe, but since I didn't care for it, I also didn't look very hard.

 I did get to try soba noodles.  I liked them.

 I didn't have to do much to the tofu.  It was pressed to get the moisture out of it.

It was just added to the sauce with the veggies

 It simmered for a while

It looked good, just didn't have any flavor. Leads me to finding a better recipe or different sauces.

Kung Poa Tofu.  Now this was good! I will be making this again.  With only a couple differences.

 I used broccoli instead of Chinese broccoli. Next time, I'm adding some red and green bell peppers.  Also some carrots.  This time I had some left over veggies from the other recipe.  So I just added them.  I also doubled the sauce since I had more veggies.

 I added the broccoli to some boiling water to make it a bright green.  I also mixed up the sauce in a bowl.

 Extra firm tofu seams to be a lot easier to use.

It didn't brown up like I had hoped, but I think I need to get a wok.

 I added the veggies to the tofu after it browned a little and was heated.

Then added the sauce and 1/4 cup chopped peanuts

 I added 1/4 cup more of peanutes, unchopped and the green onions.

Served over brown rice.  MMM  It was better than take out.

I've been wanting to try TVP to make meat substitutes.  Tonight I made up three batches of different TVP unmeats.  Unmeats is my new word.  Cause meat substitute isn't as fun. I found substitutes on different sites.

Here is my Ground Unmeat   I used my homemade vegetable broth. I also bought a couple different liquid smoke flavors for next time. I plan to use this in some tacos.

 These were way easier than I thought.  I just mixed them up, let it sit for 15 minutes and put it in a ziplock for later. I froze mine since I wasn't going to use it for a couple days.

Looks pretty close to meat crumbles.

Unmeat Chorizo  will be used in an enchilada casserole.  With a homemade enchilada sauce. But the site I got it from has a Cinnamon Cocoa Mole that I want to try someday soon.

 The chorizo I added 1/2 tsp of cayenne.  I like mine spicy.  I also let it sit and froze it.

It smelled a lot like chorizo.  Next week we will find out how it tastes

And lastly, Sweet, Hot Italian Sausage. I actuall found this on Food.Ccm. It will be in pasta bake, but should be interesting.  I'm hoping this is good, cause I love Italian Sausage.  I like mine spicy, so I also crushed red peppers to my mix.

 This is a little odd, but I'm open minded about trying it.

 I didn't roughtly chop the fennel.  I also mixed the egg whites and honey together before adding.

 The unmeats are sitting in my freezer waiting to be used in the coming week.

I will be having some of my own recipes coming soon along with some experiments.  Also a recommended Braised Tofu that I"m looking forward to.